Lead C++ Software Engineer

Location: Reston, VA Salary: $175,000.00 USD Hourly - $185,000.00 USD Hourly Description:
Lead Software Engineer (C++ Distributed Systems) - Level 5

Location: New York, NY, Denver, CO, Reston, VA or Chicago, IL
Job Type: Full-Time
Salary Range: $175,000-185,000 + bonus eligibility and long-term incentive opportunities, where applicable. (Flexible salary)
Experience Level: Senior / Lead Engineer (Level 5)
About the Opportunity

The Judge Group is seeking an experienced Lead Software Engineer to join a high-performing engineering organization building large-scale, distributed backend systems that support millions of real-time transactions daily.

This role is ideal for a hands-on technical leader who enjoys solving complex engineering challenges involving scalability, performance, reliability, and distributed computing. You will work alongside talented engineers to design, build, and optimize mission-critical platforms operating in high-volume production environments.

The successful candidate will combine deep C++ expertise with strong systems design skills and the ability to mentor engineers while influencing architecture and technical direction.
What You'll Do

• Design, develop, and maintain high-performance backend applications using C++
• Lead the design and implementation of distributed systems and scalable services
• Drive engineering best practices around performance, reliability, maintainability, and observability
• Collaborate with product, infrastructure, and engineering teams to define technical solutions
• Participate in architecture reviews and technical decision-making
• Mentor software engineers and provide technical leadership across projects
• Troubleshoot complex production issues and drive root cause analysis
• Optimize system performance, scalability, and availability
• Contribute to long-term platform strategy and modernization initiatives

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field, or equivalent practical experience
• 5+ years of professional software development experience
• Strong proficiency in C++ development within production environments
• Experience building and supporting distributed systems at scale
• Strong understanding of data structures, algorithms, and software design principles
• Experience developing on Linux/Unix platforms
• Background in backend systems engineering and networked applications
• Experience with database-backed applications and large-scale system design
• Proven ability to troubleshoot and resolve complex production issues
• Strong verbal and written communication skills

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with high-concurrency and low-latency architectures
• Cloud platform experience (AWS or similar)
• Containerization and orchestration technologies such as Kubernetes
• Experience with Go (Golang)
• Familiarity with distributed databases, caching technologies, and messaging systems
• Experience influencing architecture and technical standards
• Demonstrated success mentoring engineers and leading technical initiatives

What We're Looking For

Successful candidates typically bring experience from environments where performance, scalability, uptime, and reliability are critical, including:

• Large-scale SaaS platforms
• Cloud infrastructure organizations
• Financial technology platforms
• Trading systems
• Telecommunications
• Network infrastructure
• Digital media platforms
• Gaming infrastructure
• Data-intensive backend systems

Why Join Us

• Opportunity to solve highly complex distributed systems challenges
• Significant technical ownership and leadership responsibility
• Collaborative engineering culture focused on innovation and quality
• Exposure to large-scale, mission-critical production environments
• Competitive compensation and benefits package
• Career growth opportunities within a high-impact engineering organization

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This job and many more are available through The Judge Group. Please apply with us today!